I Need you Now, More than Ever
by thehiddenpaw
Summary: Everyone's lives have changed. Will Snape be able to forgive and forget?
1. Muggle Studies

_(Continuation of the stories 'Snape's Secret and 'Secrets Revealed')_

_It had been one and a half years since Amy and Rachel had been forced onto the dark side. The dark marks on their arms were painful reminders at just how cruel the world can be._

_Their lives had changed dramatically over the years, especially for Rachel. _

_Since the day at Niall's house she had been kicked out of her own home by her father, Severus Snape, much to her twin sister, Emily's dismay. She had been replaced by her half brother, Harry Potter, who had settled in nicely at the Snape house hold and was now living happily in her room. _

_If that wasn't enough heartbreak for Rachel, she had given birth to Draco Malfoy's son who they named Blake. _

_Rachel was currently living with one of her closest friends, Amy. Who had also been made a death eater. _

_It had been a difficult year for Amy as well, when she found out her boyfriend, Niall had handed herself, Draco and Rachel to the death eaters, she immediately ditched him. _

_However life at Hogwarts was harder than ever for the two girls, Amy who had previously been Ravenclaw, had, for the first time in a decade, been switched houses to Slytherin. As professor Flitwick didn't want a death eater in his house. _

_But some things had changed for the better; Niall had been removed from Hogwarts. And the students were unaware that any death eaters were among them. _

Muggle Studies

"Can you all please calm down!" Professor Burbage shouted over the noise of the classroom.

Rachel was sat next to Draco and behind them sat Amy and Goyle. Across the room however, Hermione, Ron, Harry and Emily were looking less than happy and were shouting with the rest of the class at the professor.

"WE DON'T WANT TO GO WITH THEM" a Gryffindor boy at the back of the class yelled pointing at the Slytherin's on the other side of the room.

"AND YOU THINK WE WANT TO GO WITH YOU. BLOODY IDIOTS" a Slytherin girl shouted back at the boy.

"ENOUGH!" Professor Burbage yelled from the front of the class.

It took a few attempts to calm the class down but finally everyone was quiet.

"I understand the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin, but this is for your benefit. If you want to pass muggle studies then you will need to go on this trip" Professor Burbage explained.

There was an uproar of shouts again.

"I DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO DO MUGGLE STUDIES" Draco shouted slamming a fist on the table.

"NO ONE EVEN GOT TO CHOOSE IF THEY WANTED TO DO THIS STUPID SUBJECT" Crabbe boomed from behind Goyle and Amy's heads.

"IT'S ALREADY BEEN DECIDED, YOUR ALL GOING ON THE TRIP" Professor Burbage called out over the yells.

There were again shouts of disagreements.

"END OF CLASS" Professor Burbage shouted and walked out the room.

"I can't believe they want us to go camping. CAMPING! It's a joke" Draco spat as he walked out the door steering Rachel towards the Great Hall for lunch.

"It might be alright" Rachel shrugged.

Draco just let out a harsh 'HA'.

"Rach, can you believe we're going camping?" Amy was bouncing with enjoy and grabbing her shoulder.

"We don't even know where we're camping out yet. It might be someone really horrible" Rachel replied.

"I hope it's not too far away, otherwise I get sick" Pansy Parkinson chimed in.

Rachel groaned.

She didn't like Pansy and she knew Pansy didn't like her. Yet Pansy was determined to annoy Rachel as much as possible, usually but flirting with Draco.

"Draco who will you be sharing a tent with?" Pansy asked, leaning towards Draco and smiling.

"Rachel I guess" Draco replied sharply.

Pansy looked hurt and walked off.

"Well that is totally out of the question" a voice said from behind them.

They turned round to see Hermione, Emily, Harry and Ron.

"What are you talking about mudblood?" Draco snarled.

"Watch it Malfoy" Ron scowled.

"I mean" Hermione replied "boys and girls are going too separated of course"

"Well that's stupid. I can share with who I want to share with" Draco said.

Hermione, Ron and Harry just snarled and picked up the pace, which left Emily and the Slytherin's.

There was still some awkwardness between Emily and Rachel, even though they were twins they felt more apart than ever over the last couple of months.

"Who are you sharing with then?" Rachel asked Emily trying hard to seem happy.

"Oh...probably Hermione and Ginny" Emily replied staring hard at the floor.

Rachel nodded slowly.

"So...urm, how's Blake?" Emily muttered.

Draco inhaled sharply and glared at Emily, although she wasn't looking.

Rachel shook her head again and sniffed.

"Yeah, he's doing alright...thanks" Rachel answered.

Emily smiled for a second then went back to looking at the floor.

"See you in the Great Hall Rach" Amy said deciding that now might be a good time for Emily and Rachel to speak on their own. She pushed Draco forward and steered him towards the hall.

"Do you think dad will ever agree to meet him?" Rachel asked Emily suddenly.

Emily looked at Rachel and blinked. Her eyes widened for a second then she smiled sadly.

"Do you want the truth?" Emily asked.

"Of course" Rachel said.

"Then, from my point of view I don't think it will be anytime soon, if ever" Emily said slowing her pace.

Rachel remained silent.


	2. Is This a Joke?

"JUST TELL US WHERE WE'RE GOING!" a Slytherin boy called Alex demanded.

Professor Mcgonagall was ignoring the demands of the boy and continued to lead the way out of Hogwarts.

Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Snape had been called along, as head of Gryffindor and Slytherin they were first people Professor Burbage had asked.

Begrudgingly they accepted, but were soon regretting it.

"Where are we even going?" Draco asked dryly.

"No idea, just hope it's not boring" Rachel groaned.

The only person that seemed remotely happy to be going camping was Amy.

She was carrying not just her own rucksack but Rachel and Draco's as well.

To everyone's confusion they stopped at the Quidditch pitch.

"Right, this is where we're going to be setting up camp for the next 3 days" Professor Burbage said cheerfully.

There was groaning amongst the students.

"The Quidditch pitch, is this some sort of joke?" Draco asked angrily.

"I am NOT camping in the middle of the Quidditch pitch" a Gryffindor girl protested.

"Me neither" the girl next to her agreed.

"But Professor, I can see my dorm from here" Emily said pointing in the direction of the Gryffindor tower.

"Yeah, this is pointless. I'm out of here" Ron said turning to go back.

"You will be going nowhere" Professor Mcgonagall snapped. "20 points from Gryffindor for your lack of enthusiasm"

The Gryffindor's groaned angrily at Ron.

"Come on all of you start pitching up your tents around the middle somewhere, and remember, NO MAGIC" Professor Burbage said.

Everyone began to shuffle slowly towards the middle of the Quidditch pitch.

"OH AND ALSO" Professor Burbage called from the side of the pitch "REMEMBER NO BOYS AND GIRLS SHARING AND ONLY THREE TO A TENT"

Hermione gave Draco a smug smile and then began setting up her own tent.

Fifteen minutes had gone by and most of the students were struggling to put their tent up.

"I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to be doing" Draco said in a rage throwing a metal pole to the ground.

"Me neither" Rachel said frowning, as she tried to put two poles together.

Amy was sharing a tent with Rachel and wasn't being particularly helpful, much to Rachel's annoyance. But what was annoying Rachel most was the fact that her twin had managed to successfully build her tent before her and everyone else.

Emily gave a smug look towards Rachel.

Rachel scowled back at her then smiled.

"Help me" Rachel mouthed to Emily so the teachers wouldn't hear.

Emily shook her head and laughed then went inside her tent.

Draco was getting impatient. He started to shout at Goyle who was just staring at the metal pieces.

"HELP ME MORON" Draco shouted, throwing a piece of pole into Goyle's hand.

Goyle once again just stared at it.

"USELESS!" Draco yelled again. He sat on the floor his knees to his chest and his head in his hands.

Rachel smiled sympathetically over at Draco.

Amy had progressed slightly in the tent building; she had done half but she looked like she was on the verge of giving up.

"Look Draco" a squeaky voice said from behind Draco. "I've built my tent"

Draco ignored the voice.

Rachel saw to her disgust that Pansy had set her tent up to the other side of Draco's tent.

Rachel tried once again to help Amy and this time had more luck.

They finally managed to build their tent in 45 minutes which was ok compared to the rest of the group.

"Well done everyone! Now that wasn't so hard was it?" Professor Burbage grinned.

Rachel saw that the teachers each had their own very large tent, that was no doubt magical in some way.

It seemed Rachel wasn't the only one who had spotted this.

"Professor?" Harry asked "How come you get such big tents? And how come you used magic. You said no magic allowed"

"We're not the ones doing this exam are we Mr Potter?" Professor Burbage said raising an eyebrow.

Harry didn't say anything but looked angry all the same.

"Muggle Studies have joined with Care of Magical Creatures. And we will be arranging a trip through the Forest tomorrow to research the animals that live there" Professor Burbage said cheerfully.

At this only some people groaned, mainly the Slytherin's.

"I don't want to go around the forest. It's dangerous" a Slytherin girl snapped.

"Yes I'd rather not get killed" Goyle agreed and Crabbe nodded.

"No one will get killed, no need to panic" Professor Burbage said, all though there was a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"We'll see about that" Draco whispered to Rachel.


	3. Rules are made to be Broken

(_This is an additional chapter, made for someone specifically, so it's up to you if you skip or read this chapter_)

It was 11pm and the students were being told to turn the lights off in their tents.

Amy and Rachel's tent was near the back of the bundle of tents and it was at the back for a reason. They wanted to get a good view of the teacher's tent.

Rachel and Amy had a plan, it was a stupid plan, that most likely wouldn't work, but they didn't care. Their plan was to wait up till the teachers went to sleep and then sneak into Draco's tent.

Amy took a lot of persuading, but after awhile she agreed to go with Rachel.

It was 12:30pm when Rachel and Amy saw the last of the teachers lights go off. They left it half an hour and then decided it was a good time to make their move.

They were dressed in their pyjamas but they had their cloaks on over the top.

Right after three we crawl as fast as we can over to Draco's tent" Rachel said unzipping the front of the tent.

"Ok" Amy nodded.

"Right, 1, 2, 3, go" Rachel ordered in a loud whisper.

The ground was wet and damp from the rain, and it was still drizzling slightly as Rachel reached Draco's tent.

"Draco" Rachel hissed shaking the outside of the tent slightly.

She heard a shuffling coming from inside the tent and she saw the outline of a figure getting nearer.

"You took your time" Draco snapped "quick get in" he said as he pulled Rachel inside the tent.

The boy's tent was different to the girl's tents; it had much less things in it. Their tent was smaller and damper looking and Crabbe and Goyle were sat crossed legged in the middle of the tent playing cards.

"I know it's ridiculous isn't it" Draco muttered catching Rachel's expression as she looked round the tent.

Rachel just nodded.

"I thought you were bringing Amy?" Crabbe asked confused.

Rachel frowned and looked behind her, but she wasn't there.

"I did, she was behind me" Rachel answered just as confused as Crabbe.

Meanwhile Amy had gone in the opposite direction to Rachel thinking that Draco's tent was to the right, not the left. Amy had just got to the outside of the tent that she thought was Draco's and saw that it was slightly unzipped and she took this as a sign to let her know that she could come in.

She unzipped the tent and crawled inside, to which someone screamed.

She shot her head round to see who had screamed and to her shock saw Neville Longbottom half way through getting changed.

"Oh my God. SHIT, wrong tent, sorry" Amy cringed as she looked away as Neville finished changing.

"What are you doing getting changed at this hour?" Amy asked her back to Neville.

"I have, bed problems...I don't want to talk about it" Neville mumbled.

Amy wretched and was just about to leave the tent when she saw one of the teachers lights come on. She looked horrified as she worked out which teacher's light had been put on, Professor Snape.

"What's she doing in here" a voice suddenly said from the back of the tent.

Amy squinted and saw the faint outline of Seamus Finnigan.

"She just came in the tent" Neville stuttered.

"Shut up" Amy hissed sharply, Snape's light has been switched on which means he's probably heard Neville scream, you need to hide me before we get into serious trouble" Amy snapped hurriedly.

"She's right" another voice said from the left side of the tent.

Dean Thomas said sitting up in his sleeping bag.

"Quick get in a sleeping bag" Neville said as he scrambled back into his sleeping bag.

"What?" Amy said appalled.

"DO IT QUICK" Dean said hurriedly spotting a small light from outside the tent.

Amy then noticed the light too and dived into the nearest sleeping bag which happened to be Seamus's.

No sooner had she done this when a voice outside said,

"Longbottom"

When no one from the inside of the tent replied the voice repeated,

"Longbottom"

"Neville" Seamus whispered as quietly as possible, "don't answer and he might go away"

Lucky for them luck was on their side and Snape walked away after a long, few minutes of patiently waiting.

Unfortunately for the people in Draco's tent, they didn't have that much time before they noticed the light and even more unluckily for them, they were arguing.

"You are not going back to look for her" Draco whispered angrily at Rachel who was trying desperately to get towards the front the of the tent so she could go back and look for Amy.

"Draco let go of me" Rachel said kicking wilding at Draco who had grabbed her by the ankle.

"No, are you insane?" Draco replied pulling Rachel harshly backwards.

"Draco let-"Rachel started, but was interrupted by Goyle,

"SHH" Goyle hushed as he pointed a finger at the light that was coming towards them.

"Crap" Draco snapped and pulled Rachel into his sleeping bag and put a hand over her mouth.

"Everyone pretend to be asleep" Draco ordered as he did his best to hide Rachel.

Snape was currently outside the tent and one thing was for certain Snape was _not_ stupid. He knew something was wrong and decided that he would come back around again, without the light later on.

On the other side of the field were the toilets, which had been placed there as part of the 'muggle experience' and were dimly lit at all times. At the present moment Ron Weasley had decided that he desperately needed the toilet, although he really didn't want to use the toilets he decided he could wait no longer.

After he had finished going to the toilet he looked around at the tents and he realised there were more than he had realised. He had no idea where his tent was, he had a rough idea but the darkness had thrown him off as to where his tent was.

He scrambled through the tents and stopped at the one he thought was his tent.

He unzipped the tent and went in; he couldn't see anything and crawled quietly over to where his sleeping bag was.

However it wasn't his sleeping bag and it wasn't his tent.

He was just about to get in when he heard a muffling noise. He stopped and then saw there was someone in the sleeping bag.

He thought for a minute that perhaps Harry had moved into his sleeping bag as a joke, and so playing along got in the sleeping bag as well.

When Ron realised that Harry hadn't sprung up and said 'Just kidding' he might be in the wrong tent.

He rolled over and saw the outline of not Harry but Emily.

He let out an uncontrollable squeal.

Emily woke up with a start.

She reached out to turn the light on, when the light was on she turned to see what was going on and to her horror saw Ron sat up right next to her.

She screamed the loudest scream possibly ever.

Ron suddenly looked alarmed. And shot up out of the sleeping bag.

Hermione and Ginny, now awake, saw Ron bent over Emily's sleeping bag.

"RON, what are you doing?" Ginny asked disgusted.

"RON!" Hermione shouted alarmed.

Then to add to Ron's problems a new figure had joined the tent.

Professor Snape was peering in at the entrance to the tent and was positively sneering at Ron.

"Get out here at once Weasley" Snape ordered.

Ron froze unable to move as he was so bewildered.

Snape, not being one for being ignored went inside the tent and pulled Ron out, dragging him as roughly as he could away from the tents.

Emily's scream had woken almost everyone up, including the rest of the teachers.

Everyone was stood outside their tents looking confused.

Rachel and Amy had previously gone back to their own tent without being caught, and were looking smug at not being caught.

Rachel could now hear the shouts of her father, Snape.

He was yelling about being disrespectful, sick minded and how 200 points had been taken from Gryffindor.

Rachel saw that Emily was looking rather flushed as she came sheepishly out from her tent.

"Hey up, what have you been up to?" Rachel asked walking over to her twin and grinning.

"Oh shut up Rach" Emily frowned but was smiling slightly all the same.

"He just bust in to our tent and started doing god knows what to the poor girl" Ginny said putting a comforting arm around Emily.

"OH goodness he didn't do anything like that" Emily blurted looking alarmed.

Rachel laughed.

"Sure he didn't" Rachel winked at her before walking off.

Once Rachel was back in her own tent with Amy she made Amy explain where she had been.

"You dived into Seamus's sleeping bag?" Rachel asked wiggling her eyebrow.

"Oh not like that you sicko" Amy laughed throwing a pillow at Rachel's face.

"When are you getting married then?" Rachel asked grinning.

Amy gave her a disapproving look.

"He's alright actually" Amy smiled.

"Oh yeah, when's the baby due then" Rachel laughed.

"That's your area not mine" Amy grinned.

"Burn" Rachel said pretending to look hurt.

Amy laughed.

"Anyway you can talk, you got in Draco's" Amy said now wiggling her eyebrow.

"Indeed" Rachel said in a deep voice.

"I hate it when you impersonate your dad like that, you sound just like him and it freaks me out" Amy said.

Rachel just laughed.

"Anyway I'm actually going to sleep now" Amy said as she shuffled around in her sleeping bag.

"Ok, night" Rachel said slamming her head on the pillow.

"Night" Amy replied.

"Night" a voice from outside their tent whispered.

But Amy and Rachel didn't hear.


	4. Amy

Amy

It was early next morning and Snape had insisted on everyone getting up at the crack of dawn.

"WAKE UP… GET UP" Snape was marching round all the tents yelling as loud as he could for everyone to get up and dressed and be out in 10 minutes.

Rachel rubbed her eyes and sat up her hair was sticking up in odd places and she didn't look too pleased at being woken at 5am.

She turned to Amy who was still asleep.

Rachel threw a pillow that landed triumphantly right in Amy's face.

Amy yawned and blinked and then finally sat up, batting the pillow away as she squinted at Rachel.

"What's the time?" Amy asked sleepily rubbing her eyes.

"5am" Rachel replied just as tired as Amy.

"Why the hell are you waking me up at this time?" Amy asked crossly.

"Listen" Rachel answered.

Amy didn't even have to strain her ears to hear the sound of Snape's booming voice echoing around the tents.

"Wow how did I not hear that" Amy said yawning.

Snape just happened to be walking outside Rachel and Amy's tent and shook the outside of the tent, making the sides bash into Amy and Rachel.

"That means you as well, Rachel" Snape shouted leaning towards the opening of the tent.

Rachel decided it was best to just not argue and start getting ready.

"Right, well done. Most of you seemed to be ready on time. Which is more than can be said for some of you" Snape was now glaring Neville Longbottom, who was now cowering under the glare of his least favourite teacher.

"Now, there as been some sort of glitch in the timetable and Muggle Studies is now joining up with Care of Magical Creatures"

This caused a few moans and mutters from the two houses, epically from Draco.

"Now your going to be split up into groups, which yes you can pick yourselves before you all ask. And your going to be doing some sort of team building exercise-" Snape trailed off now because of all the loud moaning the students were making.

"Alright everybody…enough of the noise" Professor Burbage shouted clapping his hands together.

Everybody turned silent,

"Right, you will need one of these, which what the muggles call, a compass" Professor Burbage said holding up an example. "Now you all know how to use them, I've showed you before. And you're also going to need a map, but of course you know what one of those is already. Now get into your groups so I can give each group one of these. And I want groups of five or six people, and it might be best if you stick to people in the same house as you, we don't want any arguments in the middle of a forest now do we"

Rachel and Emily exchanged annoyed glances as they stood in their groups.

Draco, Rachel, Amy, Crabbe and Goyle were in one team and Emily, Hermione, Ginny, Harry and Ron in another.

"First one to get back here and cross off all the points on their map, wins. When you get to a point you need to write down what item is at that point so we know no one has cheated" Professor Burbage explained."Right, if everyone's sorted. Off you go!"

As soon as Professor Burbage had finished talking, Draco started moaning.

"This is an utter outrage" Draco said throwing the map in disgust on the floor. "I refuse to do this."

Amy picked up the map back up again and shook some mud off.

"Draco if you're going to be a jerk, get out of our team. Cause I for one want to win" Amy snapped.

Draco scowled.

"Wait till my father here's about this" he muttered under his breath.

"Your father won't care. Not get a bloody grip" Amy hissed storming off in front.

Draco was about to argue back when Rachel touched him on the shoulder, and he let the matter go.

"I can't really read this properly" Amy said a few minutes later.

"Lets have a look" Rachel said peering over Amy's shoulder "Oh yeah that is weird"

"I think its this way" Amy said giving the compass a little shake.

"Are you sure about this? I don't like the forest. I don't want to get lost in here" Crabbe asked worriedly from the back of the group.

Amy ignored him and carried on walking.

"It's been two hours and we still haven't found one point yet!" Draco moaned as trudged along side Rachel.

"Shut up. This is confusing!" Amy yelled wiping her forehead with her sleeve. " I don't see any of you helping anyway"

Rachel raised one of her eyebrows up at Draco.

Amy had been quite fiery tempered since the incident with Niall.

"I'm hungry" Goyle groaned.

"And me" Crabbe agreed.

"Well what do you want us to do? Make the food appear out of thin air. We don't have wands" Draco said turning around to see Crabbe and Goyle practically dragging one another across the forest.

"Right I think we better spilt up even more" Amy said suddenly coming to a halt.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"I mean" Amy said turning round "We won't get this first point if we don't split up. So I suggest me and Rach go this way" She said thrusting out an arm that was pointing right. "And you three boys go that way" she said pointing an arm to her left.

"I'd rather be with Rachel" Draco protested.

"No. Your slow us down" Amy snapped.

"But I've been walking at the same pace as-"

Amy interrupted Draco yet again,

"JUST LET US GO ON OUR OWN DRACO" Amy yelled.

Crabbe and Goyle jumped at the sudden raise of her voice.

Draco's face was turning a deep red colour.

"Now you listen to me-" Draco started.

"DRACO JUST LET ME GO WITH HER….please" Amy was practically crying, either of rage or sadness, no one knew.

"Let Rachel decide" Draco spat at Amy.

"Fine" Amy shrugged.

Everyone's attention turned to Rachel.

Rachel stood awkwardly turning a light pink colour.

"Urm… maybe its best I go with Amy…" she muttered.

"See she agrees" Amy said standing by Rachel her arms crossed looking smug.

Draco scowled at them both before turning on his heel and walking away.

"Draco…wait" Rachel called after him now feeling guilty.

No answer.

"Tell him I say sorry" Rachel said turning to Crabbe and Goyle.

They nodded solemnly and walked away after Draco.


	5. Patience

The pair walked in silence for about 10 minutes.

"Amy…what was all that about?" Rachel asked wearily, slightly worried Amy would have another anger out bust.

However Amy just bit her lip.

"Amy…." Rachel said softly.

Amy turned her head.

"Rach. You must promise not to get cross" Amy said slowly.

"Amy what-" Rachel began but stopped when she noticed movement behind Amy's shoulder.

There was a rustle of leaves and crunching of twigs, and then a blonde haired boy appeared into view, his hair was scruffy and his clothes were slightly torn and he looked out of breath, it was Niall.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked now slightly worried.

She backed away cautiously.

"Rach, its ok" Amy said hurriedly.

"No…what… NO… its not ok" Rachel's voice was starting to raise.

"Please Rach, don't scream or shout. If he gets caught here, he'll be in serious trouble" Amy pleaded.

Rachel just nodded sharply.

Amy relaxed a bit more.

"I've got some important news" Niall said remaining a fair distance away from Rachel and Amy so Rachel wouldn't make a scene.

"Its about Amy's parents…. and Blake" Niall said trying to sound calm.

Rachel's eyes widened and she flicked her head back at the name Blake.

"My Blake?" Rachel asked, anxiety filling her voice.

Niall gave Amy a worried look; Amy nodded, understanding what he was worried about.

"Rach, I know this is a lot to take in but please try and remain calm" Amy soothed, trying desperately to calm her friend.

"Calm. CALM" Rachel was now filled with worry.

"Rachel!" Amy said in a hushed voice.

"He's fine. Blake is fine" Niall said hurriedly.

Rachel's shoulders loosened slightly.

Niall was breathing heavily still.

"Look I can't stay here long, people will see me or hear me. But I have to warn you. The people you love are no longer safe. You need to watch your backs"

"But, I don't understand-" Rachel was now blurting out odd parts of sentences and wasn't making sense.

"Amy will explain the details later" Niall explained hurriedly. "I want to let you know that I'm on your side now. I know it will take me along time to earn your trust but you need to believe me. You're in danger"

Rachel was on the verge of having a break down, and it hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Niall, I think I better explain the rest" Amy said looking worriedly at Niall.

Niall nodded in agreement.

"I will be in contact with you" Niall said sternly as he turned to leave.

Amy watched him go out of sight before turning her attention to Rachel who was looking so pale she might pass out.

"Sit down here a minute" Amy said as she sat down on a log.

Rachel moved stiffly to the log and sat down next to Amy.

"I'm going to try and cover most of this. Please try not to interrupt, if you want to ask anything ask after" Amy said nervously.

Rachel nodded.

"I was woken up late last night to the sound of the tent unzipping. I didn't want to wake you in case it was just a teacher or something. I saw only an outline of a hand and it dropped something. I couldn't really see, as it was dark except for the little light in the middle of our sleeping bags. I was curious to see what had been dropped. It turned out to be a letter from Niall saying that he urgently needed to see me and if I wanted him to explain to meet him at the edge of the forest, so I went. He asked if I would meet him in the morning and I said we were going to the forest and he said to meet him here with the condition it was only you and I, because he needed to talk to you also and so I agreed obviously. The only reason I agreed to meet him in the first place was because he said it had something to do with my family and yours" Amy panted as she had spoken relatively quickly.

Rachel took a few minutes to think over what Amy had said then said,

"I don't understand why our families are in danger" Rachel said confused.

"That is why" Amy answered yanking Rachel's arm towards her and pulling the sleeve up to reveal the dark mark inked into her skin.

Rachel shuddered at she glanced down at the mark.

Amy looked uneasy as she pulled the sleeve back down for her.

"But this is our problem, no one else's. What has little Blake got to do with this?" Rachel asked her eyes starting to prickle with water.

"He has everything to do with this" Amy said softly "He can be used as blackmail in this. The Dark Lord wants us to be full time Death Eaters. He knows we won't agree to it of course and is now blackmailing us with the people and things we love the most."

Rachel knew what Amy was saying was true but she wasn't sure she was ready to believe it yet.

"How does Niall know all this information?" Rachel asked curiously as a tear trickled down her cheek.

"He knows, because the Dark Lord has put Niall's father in charge of getting us to join" Amy explained sadly.

Another tear fell to the muddy ground below.

"I see" Rachel whispered. "I need to get Blake" she said he voice now starting to turn cold.

"Not yet" Amy said "We need to do this at the right time, and we don't know if we can fully trust him yet. I'm sending an owl home tonight, asking how everything is and of course, asking how Blake is doing. But for now patience is the way forward"

"Ok. But if there's no answer by tomorrow morning, I'm going. Agreed?" Rachel said.

"Agreed" Amy nodded.

Rachel got up.

"Time to go back and join the team then" Rachel sighed wiping her eyes.

"Wait a second, one more thing" Amy said.

Rachel turned to look at Amy.

"Draco. He wants him to become a death eater as well" Amy explained.

This time there were more than two tears that fell from Rachel's eyes.

"Why?…" Rachel trailed off.

Amy just shook her head and began to cry as well.

"There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you two" A voice yelled.

Rachel and Amy turned to see Draco, Crabbe and Goyle walking towards them.

"Don't say anything" Amy whispered moving to stand by Rachel. "Act normal"

"I'll try…" Rachel whispered in reply.


	6. Horror in the Forest

Horror in the Forest

"Have you found any of the points then?" Draco said rather harshly.

Rachel blinked,

"Points?" she repeated slowly.

"Well yeah, that was the whole point of splitting up, so we can get all the points" Draco snapped.

"Oh right, yeah..." Rachel said trailing off as she turned away from Draco so he couldn't see her crying.

Draco wasn't the most comforting of people and he certainly wasn't in a comforting mood right now.

"What's the matter with her?" Draco asked Amy who was currently giving Rachel a hug.

"She got stung by a wasp" Amy replied.

"She's crying because she got stung, by a wasp?" Draco asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes" Amy said sharply.

"We found 2 points" Crabbe said pointing to 2 red dots on the map.

Amy nodded and smiled slightly.

"I wonder what the time is" Amy thought aloud.

"It's-"Goyle said as he reached in his robe pocket and taking out a little silver watch "11am"

"Weren't we supposed to be back by 10am?" Crabbe asked.

"I don't know, and nor do I care" Draco said, he turned to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Amy called after him.

"Away from here" Draco shouted back angrily.

Crabbe and Goyle began to follow him.

"I don't want to be followed" Draco yelled behind him.

"He's going to get lost if someone doesn't follow him" Amy said worriedly.

"It's best to leave him when he's in this mood" Goyle said.

"I disagree" Amy said.

Before Amy could speak again, Rachel was already making a dash after Draco.

"Rachel!" Amy said trying to run after but she had already gone.

"DRACO!" Rachel cried out.

She was currently on her own, which she didn't particularly like.

"DRACO!" she called again but no reply.

She looked around as she heard the sound of crunching.

She shot round to see what had made the noise, nothing was there. But then when she turned around again, none other than Niall father was standing there.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel stammered.

He chuckled and started to walk closer.

"What do you want?" Rachel asked, stepping away from him.

"Well, numerous reasons" he smirked.

Rachel stared at him, her eyes not leaving his.

"First reason being, I just questioned Niall as to where he had been this morning and he told me some made up crap. You see I can tell when he's lying... and it took a while for him to tell me the truth. But in the end he cracked, and he told me he had been to see you and your little friend Amy" He explained.

Rachel was having a hard time listening to what he was saying as she was more concerned to what he was or was going to do.

"You see I have, let's say...a feeling, that he might have let some very private information slip out. And when you're a death eater you can't betray your master"

The way he said "betray your master" made Rachel feel sick to her stomach.

"Wait..." Rachel said in a whisper "Niall's a death eater?"

Niall's father laughed.

"Of course he is. It runs in the family child" he laughed again.

Rachel did not like being called a child.

"I'm not a child" Rachel said her voice less weak sounding now.

"Yes you are" Niall's father spat.

"I'm not" Rachel said her voice rising by the second.

"What makes you think you aren't a child? You look like one to me"

"A child is someone who has to have other people make decisions for them; they need support from other people. I don't need anyone; therefore I am not a child" Rachel said her voice now steady.

Niall's father stared at her.

"It's a pity you are not truly dedicated to your job" he hissed.

Rachel frowned.

"You look confused" he walked nearer to Rachel, slowly. "That is your job" he explained pointing to her left arm, where the dark mark was hidden under layers of clothes.

Rachel didn't even look to where he was pointing she remained looking at his face.

"You're sick and vile" Rachel snarled.

He laughed in reply.

"No more sick and vile than you" he chuckled again. "But let me get back to why I'm here. I just wanted to warn you that your family is in danger. I don't know what my son as told you but, they are in danger and you would be stupid to ignore this information"

Rachel blinked.

The pinkness from her cheeks had suddenly vanished and had been replaced with a tint of green. Her eyes were twitching and her hands were slowly clenching and unclenching.

"I can see you've taken in the information, just about" Niall's father said "So I'm going to leave you now on this message. The Dark Lord does not wait and he means everything he says. And right now your family and your little friend's family are in danger. Time is very limited." He explained before turning and walking off.

But then he stopped and turned around again "Just a friendly tip, I would keep that information I just told you between you and Miss Powell. We wouldn't want any more people in danger now would we?"

Just before he was about to turn around yet again Rachel suddenly said,

"Blake, is he ok?" Rachel asked nearly choking on her words.

He paused and for the first time you could see a tiny bit of pity. Even if it was tiny it was still there and even though it had been for a second, the point was it had been there.

"He's...not dead" he replied coldly before turning and walking away.


	7. Don't lie

Rachel stood rooted to the spot. She was swaying slightly; there was a breeze gathering and it made Rachel feel even more on edge.

She then heard the sound of what she thought was a loud sigh.

She turned to wear the sound was coming from and she saw a glimpse of bright blonde hair.

"Draco" she said cautiously, stepping closer.

No reply.

She walked nearer,

"Draco?" she repeated.

Then suddenly Draco came out from behind some bushes, his arms folded across his chest and he didn't look to happy.

Rachel's mind was still on the conversation that she had had moments before with Niall's father, and she was finding it hard to think of something to say.

"Look, I'm sorry I stormed away like that but I was angry. I mean I just wanted some time-"Draco began, but he got cut short as Rachel just flung her arms round him and buried her head into his shoulder.

Draco was taken aback by Rachel's actions. She wasn't usually one for hugs or any affection really. If this had been anyone else Draco would have probably pushed them away or wouldn't have known what to do, but it came natural to Draco as to what to do when it came to Rachel.

He hugged her tightly and held her to him.

She sniffed lightly and tried to act as normal as possible.

"What's happened?" Draco asked worriedly.

"Nothing..." Rachel replied unconvincingly, her head still resting on his shoulder so she didn't have to look at him.

"Don't lie to me" Draco said sternly.

Rachel flinched as his grip tightened.

"What's the matter? You've been acting weird recently. Is it Amy?" He asked, forcing her to stand in front of him.

"No!" Rachel practically shouted.

She was unused to feeling such an arrange of different emotions that she didn't know what to do. She wanted to tell Draco so badly about what had just happened, but that would mean putting him at risk even more and she would never do that.

"Then what is it?" Draco snapped. His patience was fading and anger was returning.

"It's nothing, I'm fine" Rachel said forcing out a smile.

"Rachel" Draco said putting both hands on her shoulders. Rachel looked up at him concerned, he only ever called her Rachel when something was the matter. "There is something that is affecting you badly. Don't even deny it. Even Crabbe has picked up on it"

Rachel racked her brain for something, anything to say. She was so desperate that she came out with the worst lie ever.

"It's Pansy" Rachel blurted.

Draco looked confused, his eyebrow arching.

"Pansy?" he said slowly.

Rachel nodded.

"I don't understand" Draco said starting to panic.

"I just get fed up of her creeping around you all the time" Rachel explained.

She knew this was the most pathetic excuse she had ever come up with but it was the only thing she could think of.

Draco was squinting at her, his baby blue eyes were staring her down and she couldn't help feel guilty not telling him. But she wasn't prepared to put his life at risk.

Draco took Rachel by surprise as he bent down and kissed her.

"Listen to me ok" he then said seriously "Don't even think that she can come between us. She's annoying and most importantly, she isn't you"

Rachel was trying hard to swallow her tears of guilt and sadness that were nearly causing her to choke.

"RACHEL!" someone shouted.

"OVER HERE" she shouted back, not taking her eyes of Draco.

She could hear Amy, Crabbe and Goyle coming over towards her.

"Rach? You alright?" Amy asked worriedly.

"mmm.." Rachel muttered in reply.

Amy gave Draco a concerned look; he looked blankly back at her.

"Let's get going. We're late" Amy said guiding Rachel away from Draco and back over towards the path.


	8. Blood

The Muggle Studies trip had finished at last and it was the early the next evening. Amy had previously sent an owl to her parents asking if they were ok and how Blake was doing.

And now Amy and Rachel were sat awaiting their reply.

"I'm sure Blake is fine" Amy smiled at Rachel, who was drumming her fingers on the Slytherin table.

"It doesn't stop me worrying" Rachel snapped.

"I understand that" Amy nodded "I was just saying, I'm sure everything is fine"

All of a sudden a screeching and hooting noise could be heard, the mail had arrived.

Amy scanned for her owl, and then she saw him.

Her owl dropped the letter into her open hand.

Rachel moved closer to Amy so she could read it at the same time. It read,

'Hello sweetheart,

We're all doing fine here, nothing to worry about honestly. Hope you and Rachel are both doing ok. Blake misses his mum and dad I think, he seems a bit restless, but like I said nothing to worry about. Speak soon!

Love mum and dad x'

Amy re-read it then frowned.

Rachel noticed her frowning,

"What's up?" Rachel asked

"She doesn't normally write like that" Amy replied looking at the envelope.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked worriedly.

"The way she worded it, it doesn't sound like her. And she's never once called me sweetheart" Amy said looking at Rachel confused.

"Let's have a look again" Rachel said taking the letter from her.

She looked carefully at the letter and the envelope.

"What's that?" Rachel asked pointing to tiny amount of red in the bottom left corner of the envelope.

Amy looked where she was pointing.

"It might just be ink" Amy shrugged, but looked worried all the same.

"It doesn't look like ink though" Rachel said.

"Well what do you think it is then?" Amy asked.

Rachel paused then after a few seconds said,

"I think it may be blood..."

"Blood?" Amy repeated slowly.

Rachel nodded.

"But, that doesn't make sense-"Amy said confused.

"Think about it, you said yourself that isn't how you're mum or dad normally writes to you, and now there's a weird mark on the back of the envelope. Do you not think that's a bit odd?" Rachel asked.

Amy shuffled around on the seat, staring at the mark in the corner.

"What now?" Amy asked slowly.

"We go. Now" Rachel said getting up.

"But Rach, I want to go as well it's just we don't-"Amy began,

"Amy. This isn't like the time we stole those uniforms. We do not have time to plan; this is a time for action. I don't want my son dying because of me" Rachel said solemnly

Amy nodded.

"Let's go" Amy said getting up.

They headed out of the Great Hall, oblivious to who had just picked up the letter they forgot to take with them.

[sorry it's short, the next one will be longer . ]


End file.
